How Google's Calico aims to fight aging and 'solve death'

By Arion McNicoll, for CNN

Updated 1147 GMT (1847 HKT) October 3, 2013

The death of death?8 photos

The death of death? – Since the early twentieth century life expectancy has improved in most parts of the world. But what if life could be extended past its current boundaries? In this gallery, CNN Labs takes a look at some of the current research being done into life extension. First up, cryonics -- a discipline where a person's body is preserved in low temperatures, often using liquid nitrogen, in the hope of resuscitating them in the future. Here, the head of the Russian cryonics firm KrioRus, Danila Medvedev, looks inside a low-temperature human storage unit just outside Moscow.

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The death of death?8 photos

Putting it on ice – Extremely low temperatures are also used in cryotherapy -- a medical treatment that has gained currency with a number of international sports teams. Here, French soccer player Franck Ribery is immersed in a cryotherapy tank, subjecting the body to temperatures as low as minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 160 Celsius). Cryotherapy aims to decrease pain and inflammation and aid healing.

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The death of death?8 photos

Small problems, big solutions – Nanotechnology is a relatively new discipline that some scientists hope will have multiple applications to healthcare. Ray Kurzweil, an American futurist says that in his view by the 2020s, it may become possible to deploy tiny robots (or 'nanobots') through the body to overcome the problems of incorrect DNA replication -- one of the central causes of aging. In this photo, a student in the nanotechnology research and education center at the University of South Florida, looks through a microscope.

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The death of death?8 photos

Hormone treatment – Early research into the effects of growth hormones on mice suggests various kinds of hormonal treatment may help to increase life expectancy. It is not yet known whether the results will be transferable to humans, but some hormone therapies have already made it to market.

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The death of death?8 photos

Stemming the tide – Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have been experimenting with stem cell treatments, injecting rapidly aging mice with a shot of young stem cells to make them live dramatically longer, healthier lives. "Our experiments showed that mice that have progeria, a disorder of premature aging, were healthier and lived longer after an injection of stem cells from young, healthy animals," Dr Laura Niedernhofer who led the experiment told Science Daily. "That tells us that stem cell dysfunction is a cause of the changes we see with aging."

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The death of death?8 photos

Fresh-faced – According to a report by Global Industry Analysts the global anti-aging products market will be worth $291.9 billion by 2015. Every year in the U.S. alone, those fearing the inevitable signs of aging invest over $50 billion in skin care solutions. One of the more effective services is skin rejuvenation therapy or photorejuvenation in which a laser is used to induce controlled wounds on the skin, which then heals by creating new, wrinkle-free cells.

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The death of death?8 photos

Mind uploading – The premise behind "mind uploading" is that if you can't keep your body, at least you can keep your brain. Some might even see this as the ideal. Extensive research is underway: The process would involve the precise mapping of a conscious mind onto a computer, allowing it to be reused, either in a humanoid robot or biological body. The Brain Preservation Foundation is offering a prize to promote exploration in this field. It calls for scientists to try and fully map a mouse brain and then a larger animal brain in such a way that could be used to "reboot" a mind in virtual space.

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The death of death?8 photos

Is this the end? – Telomeres are the ends of a chromosome that protect cells against degradation. According to researchers if we can work out a way to preserve telomeres, then we would be another step closer to defeating aging. Dr Aziz Aboobaker from Nottingham University's School of Biology, said: "Usually when stem cells divide -- to heal wounds, or during reproduction or for growth -- they start to show signs of aging. This means that the stem cells are no longer able to divide and so become less able to replace exhausted specialized cells in the tissues of our bodies. Our aging skin is perhaps the most visible example of this effect."

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Story highlights

Google's new company Calico will 'tackle aging and illness'

Many believe that Calico will take a 'big-data' approach to speed the way to health care discoveries

Exploratory disciplines including cryonics, cloning and nanotechnology hope to extend human life

It is an age-old question: will humankind ever defeat old age?

Plenty of skin care companies would like us to believe so. And now, the multinational tech giant Google would like us to think it might be possible too.

Last month Google announced a new medical company called Calico, whose explicit aim is to take on aging itself. But what will Google's approach be? And what other research into prolonging life already exists?

With its proliferation of businesses, products and services, it would be easy to forget that not so very long ago Google was just a search engine. Today, offshoots of the sprawling global corporation can be found researching self-driving cars, developing their own smart phones and tablets and even launching giant balloons into near space.

Amid this growing portfolio of diffuse interests and initiatives has been added their latest company: Calico.

Calico -- or the California Life Company -- has been set up to research subjects related to aging and its associated diseases. Announcing Calico at a media briefing, Google said that the new and independent company will largely focus on age-attendant conditions such as Alzheimer's, cancer and heart disease.

Larry Page, Google's ever youthful CEO said: "Illness and aging affect all our families. With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives."

But the question is, what will Calico actually do? At the moment the company isn't giving much detail away: "(Incoming CEO Arthur Levinson) and I are excited about tackling aging and illness," Page wrote in his Google+ blog post. But repeated requests from CNN to interview either Page or Levinson were politely declined.

In the absence of any real information, many commentators have speculated that Calico will pursue a 'big-data' approach to health: gathering massive amounts of information from patients and 'crunching it' to help speed the way to health care discoveries. Some have suggested that Calico's new CEO will take the view that the best way to tackle aging is to focus on preventing diseases.

Aubrey de Grey, an expert in the field of regenerative medicine, told CNN that it is too soon to speculate on what Google's approach will be: "in relation to Calico, I think it's vital to keep in mind that there is essentially no concrete information about their planned direction and emphasis, and any guess that they will take a heavily data-driven approach is no more than a guess."

Aubrey de Grey

However, he does think that Calico will not limit its focus to a single disease: "The statements from Page and Levinson thus far indicate quite strongly that the emphasis will not be just cancer, or even just a range of specific diseases, but will be 'aging itself': Page in particular has highlighted the paltry longevity gains that would arise even from totally eliminating cancer."

João Pedro de Magalhães, a Portuguese biologist who leads the Integrative Genomics of Aging group at the University of Liverpool, agrees: "From what I've read, I don't think the company will mostly focus on cancer. In the Time interview Larry Page clearly states that solving cancer is 'not as big an advance as you might think'. This is reminiscent of what experts studying aging have been saying for a while, which is that to really make a difference in human health and longevity you need to tackle the aging process rather than individual age-related diseases."

So where might Calico's focus lie? A broad range of technologies and therapies that promise life extension through different means are currently being researched and tested. CNN Labs takes a look across the scientific landscape to bring you the view from the front line of the war against aging.

Cryonics

Cryonics is a process where the body -- or occasionally just the head -- is suspended in liquid nitrogen to 'preserve' it indefinitely. The idea is that in the future the body will be able to be resuscitated and brought back to life.

The cost of cryonics can vary wildly. The lowest price at the Cryonics Institute is reportedly $28,000 for 'cryopreservation'; Alcor Life charges customers up to $200,000 for similar services. But does it work?

The Cryonics Institute underline on their website that, as yet, their treatments are based on projections of technology to come rather than present day science: "We firmly believe that with the incredible advances being made in nanotechnology, medicine and science today, cryonics has the same potential to become an everyday reality in the not-so-distant future ... The goal of cryonics is to halt (the 'dying') process as quickly as possible after legal death, giving future doctors the best possible chance of reviving the patient by repairing or replacing damaged tissues, or even entire organs using advanced computer, nanotech and medical equipment and procedures".

The related field of cryotherapy has gained currency in some quarters of athletics, with coaches immersing their athletes in cryotherapy chambers during or after exercise in a bid to aid training and heal injuries. The French soccer team used cryotherapy during the European Cup in 2012, and the Wales rugby union squad use it as well. Cryotherapeutic chambers expose players to very low temperatures -- around minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 160 Celsius) -- for short periods. Some theorists believe that doing so can help speed the body's recovery, but others say that the evidence is incomplete.

A cryotherapy chamber in the Olympic Sports Centre in Spala, near the Polish capital Warsaw

Self-healing worms and telomeres

In 2012 a group of scientists at Nottingham University discovered that a species of flatworm -- the Planarian worm --can divide 'potentially forever' and thus heal itself. Some researchers hope that the discovery will provide fresh insight into how it may be possible to alleviate aging in human cells.

Dr Aziz Aboobaker from Nottingham University's School of Biology, said: "Usually when stem cells divide -- to heal wounds, or during reproduction or for growth -- they start to show signs of aging. This means that the stem cells are no longer able to divide and so become less able to replace exhausted specialized cells in the tissues of our bodies. Our aging skin is perhaps the most visible example of this effect. Planarian worms and their stem cells are somehow able to avoid the aging process and to keep their cells dividing."

According to researchers looking at the worm, the key may be in understanding the function of telomeres -- the ends of a chromosome that protect cells against degradation.

Another major area of investigation is looking into organ creation and replacement. Many people die due to organ failure, but imagine if you could just create your own new liver and replace a faulty one?

An artist's impression of a 3D-printed heart

Scientists have already successfully implanted functioning lab-grown kidneys into rats. If the therapy could be successfully (and affordably) replicated for humans, it could help overcome the significant organ donor shortages that persist in many countries. Early work into creating organs using 3D printers has also yielded promising results.

Nanotechnology

Organ replacement will probably only ever be part of the solution however. Many scientists believe that longevity through repairing the human body requires a broader focus than just replacing individual parts.

Ray Kurzweil, an American author, inventor and futurist argues in his book The Singularity is Near that by the 2020s, nanotechnology may be able to help cure disease. Kurzweil says that deploying tiny robots (or 'nanobots') in the body could help overcome the problems of incorrect DNA replication -- one of the central causes of aging.

de Grey says that nanotechnological research is interesting, but that he believes it is further away from finding a solution to aging than some other treatments: "I pay attention to molecular manufacturing (the discipline that coined the term "nanotechnology" but then effectively had it stolen by the field of nanomaterials), but I think its relevance to medical interventions, whether in aging or otherwise, still seems likely to be further off than the more traditionally biomedical work".

So will Google's new company discover a workable solution to aging and death? Only time will tell.